Tim Engstrom, Pothole Prairie

CHICAGO &8212; Doesn&8217;t it seem like almost all NFL teams have quarterback problems these days? Didn&8217;t past teams more often seem to have solid quarterbacks, someone about whom there was no doubt. Yup. He&8217;s the quarterback for that team.

It seems there are more teams these days like the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys &8212; rotating the QB spot or else close to it &8212; than there are the Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers

&8212; a sure-thing taking snaps.

In the 1970s, &8217;80s and &8217;90s sometimes teams had a year of indecisiveness but that matter was resolved and there&8217;d be a franchise quarterback for next five to 10 years. You&8217;d get guys like Marino, Montana, Moon, Aikman, Favre, Tarkenton, Staubach, Griese, Starr, Young, Williams, Bradshaw, Unitas, Namath, Kelly, Elway, Esiason and so on.

At a home in the Chicago suburbs this weekend, I watched Rex Grossman and the Chicago Bears struggle against Tom Brady and his Patriots. It occurred to me that most teams have a man serving as quarterback until they can find a better one. Call the position &8220;quarterback for now,&8221; or QFN.

Teams need a leader. You need that go-to guy handling the ball, that guy you know will have a job even as other players come and go. Bears QFN Rex Grossman threw as many passes to Patriots cornerback Asanti Samuel as he did to any of his own receivers Sunday. Grossman also had a fumble and many bad passes. The Bears have what they need for a Super Bowl-caliber team except the guy who touches the ball on every play.

The Vikings for years tried to pretend Duante Culpepper was the QB but he really was just a fad, so the team brings in an old man, Brad Johnson, to play QFN until Tavarius Jackson takes the helm or until the front office can find a suitable leader. Building a good team takes time, yes, but it seems teams are doing more to build than actually to field solid contenders. And perhaps that has to do with how often the coaches are changed so much. Tom Laundry couldn&8217;t have become a legend in Texas with how swiftly coaches are ousted these days. Don Shula? Forget about it.

Chuck Knoll? No way. Bud Grant? Not a chance.

I&8217;m not saying it is a good or a bad thing, but it is a truth of the modern game. Coaches change more. Quarterbacks change more. There&8217;s less time for coaches to develop teams and therefore less time for quarterbacks to develop within programs.

Take Phil Simms. He played for the New York Giants. He wasn&8217;t always good. He played plenty of bad games, just like Rex Grossman did for Chicago on Sunday. But he was their quarterback. You didn&8217;t doubt that. He stuck around and played enough hard-fought games to become a title winner. I like Simms today as a sportscaster, but I hated him as a player. He wasn&8217;t good. He was simply good enough to beat my teams. That&8217;s because he had time to develop.

It was interesting to read the Chicago newspapers the next day. About half of the writers called for Grossman&8217;s head on a platter. The other half dismissed the performance as simply a bad game, which everyone has from time to time. I liked what coach Lovey Smith said after the game.

He stuck by Grossman, saying, &8220;He&8217;s our quarterback.&8221; He noted there were plenty of bad play calls and the offensive line could&8217;ve protected him better, too. He said the loss was the fault of the team, not one guy.

I&8217;m not saying teams shouldn&8217;t ever give up on the quarterbacks. The Cowboys were smart to pull Drew Bledsoe and play Tony Romo. But I am saying too often they don&8217;t give their quarterbacks time to develop. Fran Tarkenton wasn&8217;t a star by his third year. I hope the Giants give Eli Manning more time. He&8217;s only in his third year. I like seeing the Giants lose, believe me, but from a critical standpoint you have to notice his receivers have dropped a lot of balls this season and the team&8217;s play calling has been odd. Too many are quick to blame Manning.

Speaking of play calling, I&8217;d like to see more quarterbacks calling plays on hurry-up offenses, just like Jim Kelly did with the Buffalo Bills. Coaches try to control so much of the on-field activity that they fail to realize their players have talents that shine during chaos. Wouldn&8217;t it be great to see Michael Vick calling plays for the Atlanta Falcons? He might do better with a loosy-goosy let-er-rip style of football. In a time when coaches are turning football into chess, it might be good for a team to break the rules, just like the 49&8217;ers did in the 1980s with the West Coast offense.

(Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom&8217;s column appears every Tuesday.)